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Tuesday, October 20, 2015

UPDATE MARCH 14, 2017
I broke the exclusive on my Facebook page first, but I have confirmation that Katie McCall is leaving Houston TV news. Turns out McCall will be an anchor at 10News WTSP the CBS affiliate in Tampa.

EXCLUSIVE: Reporter/anchor Katie McCall to leave FOX 26 KRIV and television news for family

Katie McCall

I started getting lots of tips Monday that longtime Houston TV journalist Katie McCall is getting out of the television news biz. Sure enough, the current FOX 26 KRIV reporter/fill-in anchor is leaving the station for her new family.

"My future stepchildren are asking me when I'm quitting so I can pick them up from school," she added.

That also means she'll be available to take them to tennis lessons in a post TV world.

"I'm a little conflicted because I do love reporting when you know the story is going to help someone, but I don't want my life to just be about me, I want my life to be about other people," McCall admitted to me. "What I do in news requires me to be gone a lot. We would love to sit down together and have dinner on a weeknight, which we've never done."

McCall says she gives 100% of herself to her journalism career. And she also wants to do that for her stepchildren and future kids. Realizing that will be a juggling act she personally does not feel she can handle, McCall is ready for more family time. That desire for more time also extends to her own family in Chicago.

"Since 1998, (when she started in TV) I have not been in control where I've been on Thanksgiving and Christmas," she said.

With the holidays coming up, McCall is looking forward to having a normal schedule for the first time in a long time. Working weekends and nights meant she missed her nieces' and nephews' birthdays and other life milestones.

The first time Houston viewers laid their eyes on McCall was back in 2000 at the then KHCW 39 (now KIAH). After channel 39, McCall was a bureau chief at Chicago's WBBM. She started her on air TV career at KGUN Tucson, AZ.

McCall tells me she is excited to get married and become a wife and mom. She'll leave KRIV in the coming days.